Working very closely with a wide range of employers, the Transport Planning Society (TPS) and GoSkills, the Sector Skills Council responsible for transport planning, have developed the National Occupational Standards (NOS) for Transport Planning.

The National Occupational Standards (NOS) cover the key activities undertaken by a professional, providing a statement of competence which brings together the skills, knowledge and understanding necessary to do their work, and provide a framework for training and development. The Transport Planning NOS were formally approved by the regulatory authorities, the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) for England and its counterparts in the other administrations, in April 2007. Copies are available here.

Based on the NOS, the Transport Planning Society has prepared the TPS Professional Standards for Transport Planners. The TPS Standards maintain the full content of the NOS, to which additional guidance has been added. They have also been restructured to make them directly suitable for use in the TPS Professional Development Scheme as well as for the TPP qualification.

The TPS Standards cover six areas:

• Policies and Regulations
• Tools and Techniques
• Design
• Operations
• Management
• Communications, Commitment and Ethics

which are divided into eighteen Units and 93 Objectives. A specific level of competence is associated with each Objective: Awareness, Knowledge, Experience and Proficiency, with Proficiency being defined as an ability to carry out work without supervision and to supervise others.

The TPS Professional Standards are available to those organisations with a TPS Professional Development Scheme licence.